Horrible colors on external monitor using macbook air(2012) with mini dp to hdmi

Hi everyone,

I have been following this thread for a while now - thanks for your input.

I have the same problem with a mid 2012 Macbook Pro 13". When the Macbook is connected to an external Fujitsu screen with HDMI input, the colours are washed out and the contrast seems saturated.

I called Apple and they were clueless - tried calibrating, tried lowering the contrast to normal in Universal Access settings, nothing worked.

The monitor works perfectly with a PC connected through HDMI. I did a test at work connecting my Macbook to an HDMI projector - it worked very well, so I thought that the MDP-HDMI adapter that I have works fine, so does the Macbook and thus it must be a problem with my monitor. But then I tried my Fujitsu monitor with an older Macbook (still plastic white body, not sure about the year) using the same MPD-HDMI converter, and it worked perfectly, so the problem seems to be with my Macbook in the end.

I also plan to visit Apple store with my PC and monitor and will report back.

I finally finished with the Apple store last night; here is the update with a little background:

• Like everyone else, I am having the same contrast issues using HDMI. I THOUGHT I was having the same issues with VGA; never was able to try DVI until last night.
• Had been to to Apple store; they tried the Apple monitor and it worked fine with my MBA. Tried the Sony Bravia using DVI (I THINK). That worked fine as well. At this point I was sure it was the monitor.
• I purchased a second monitor; returning the AOC for a Dell 24". An upgrade in size and quality I think.
• Tried HDMI on the Dell with the same awful results. Went back to the Apple store yesterday and a different guy started fussing with the Apple display settings and got the grays and whites to look acceptable. Problem was, a cherry-red Porsche desktop picture now looked hot-pink.
• I begged him to try the DVI connection; he was hesitant as he said DVI renders the same video quality (contrary to what I've read here). Guess what? Worked fine.

I am out of this game now. I don't have the time to do any more troubleshooting. It works with DVI fine (it's not Apple Cinema quality of course), but the greys are grey and the colors are fine. Video isn't stellar, but acceptable. I am justifying this result in that the monitor cost me 1/5 of Apple's price, and I'm not likely to be required to use HDMI. I can use with VGA and DVI and will watch this topic for updates.

Thanks to ALL that posted; it was collectively helpful and narrowed my focus saving me time.

David

I also surrendered - just using the MDP to VGA for now (had to purchase it obviously) and will check the MDP to HDMI after every system update if they fix it..

This is my first Mac and obviously it's true, once you pay Apple - you continue paying them for other things 😉

Cheers

Received a replacement MBA in the post today (for a different reason to do with banding on the screen). I had been hoping the replacement would somehow not exhibit the same problem. Alas it does. Only HDMI and only on Mac OSX (VGA, DVI and also HDMI through windows bootcamp are all fine). I can't find the "display.icc" file either, but after spending ages trying to calibrate my display with both the native calibration tool and other online tools I am convinved my issue is not simply one of callibration. If anyone else has had any success with a callibration file though it would be great to know.

One questions I was wondering about was whether anyone knew anyone with a new MacBook Air that doesn't have this problem? I would have thought if it were universal the web would be flooded with people complaining......

I'll also pop into my local Apple Store to discuss and raise an issue with Apple Tehnical support, but I doubt it will help in the near-term. Last time I spoke with technical support they said they were unaware of the problem. If that remains the case I will probably return the computer for refund. I have a perfectly adequate MacBook Pro from 2009 I can use, with functioning HDMI, and hey, the new 13 inch Retina is allegedly out in mid-September. Maybe that won't have the same problem.......

I imagine the lack of complaints is because not too many people who use a sexy MBA simultaneously use older VGA's. In my case it's cos we gave sales reps sexy MBA's and they have to connect to client projectors. I don't imagine many sales reps get MBAs 🙂. I further don't see a sales rep joining a tech support forum.

This whole thread points strongly to a very simple Mac fix. The fact that these VGA screens work on reboot, and work in windows, indicates that it's not the port so much as the driver that's at fault. Probably something to do with power settings when a VGA is detected.

Has anyone submitted a formal bug report and referenced this (and the other similar) thread?

Chris, I think you are forgetting that the original post is about HDMI and this is the main issue we are discussing here.

I personally don't have any issues with the VGA adapter and am happy with it, but I want to be able to use HDMI for obvious reasons.

By the way, I have MacBook Pro Mid 2012, not Air, but the problem is the same.

Cheers

Okay, folks... I finally made it to an Apple store. I showed up there with:

1. My Mid 2012 MBA
2. My 27" Monitor (with DVI, HDMI, and VGA ports)
3. An HDMI / DisplayPort Adapter
4. An HDMI -> cable
5. A HDMI -> DVI cable

The Genius was able to reproduce my problem: When the HDMI cable was connected, the colors were washed out. When the DVI connection was used, the color was definitely better, but not the best.

After trying a number of settings and reconfigurations, the Genius pulled out a mid-2011 MBA, and the problem could not be recreated. (The screen looked fine.) We then went to two mid 2012 MBAs, and the problem came right back. (On one it was fairly washed out, and on the other, it was significantly washed out.

At this point, I'm thinking: "Okay, now they'll get engineering involved, and they'll get either a HW or SW fix out to me." Unfortunately, what the Genius actually said was something like: "Well, we'll send a message to engineering, but they're not required to send us a response." As you can imagine, my jaw dropped. This is my first Mac, and I was convinced that I'd be treated much better. Unfortunately, I basically got a "too bad, so sad" response. (To be clear, the Genius guy looked like he felt sorry for me, but that doesn't fix the issue.)

I think I'm going to wait a day to see if, by some miracle, engineering comes back with a fix. If not, then this box is going back to Apple. With the premium cost associated with a Mac, I think it's ridiculous that a true problem gets ignored.

Here's hoping someone gets a better response

Tim1e9,

Good job on taking on the whole lot into the Genius bar. Rubbish that you got such a wishy washy response. There is clearly something here that needs fixing.

I had a much more positive response on this yestreday when I rang up AppleCare. After going through all the details, resetting a few things they passed the call onto one of their senior advisors who took the whole issue much more seriously. Having discussed the details (and linking him through to this forum for more background on all the combos that have been tried and failed) he raised it up to the engineering department as a formal flag. He said they are usually pretty busy, but were required to provide a response in 4 working days.

Hopefully we should therefore have a response from the people who actually are able to fix this by Monday (or Tuesday at the latest). Of course, no guarantees the response will be favourable, and there is clearly a firmware issue here that needs to be resolved, and that will take time, but I'll let you know what they say.

Hi,

I know that this is a thread on MBA, but since I have exactly the same problem with a mid 2012 MBP, I think that I could contribute to this discussion...

So I went to the local Apple Service Provider. The technician was very surprised by this problem and we tried a couple of things:

- When his MBP from 2011 was connected to my screen using the same cable and adapter, it looked ok

- When my mid 2012 MBP was connected to another screen with the same cable and adapter, the same problem with washed colors and contrast occured

- When my MBP was connected via DVI (using an appropriate adapter) to the same screen, everything looked ok

- Finally, when we tried connecting another brand new mid 2012 MBP 13" to the same screen with the same HDMI cable and adapter, exactly the same problem with colors and contrast occured.

Thus, it seems that the problem is more widespread and it is not only my MBP that has it but possibly all or a lot of other new mid 2012 MBPs.

They took my MBP for a checkup but suggested that it may be a software problem and maybe I will have to wait for an update that will fix the problem.

In the meantime I called Apple again and was put in touch with a senior member of support staff. He promised to do more research on this and report back to me, but suggested that one possible avenue that we have not explored is to use the Moshi adapter which is supposed to be compatible with thunderbolt which is installed on the new MBPs. I will try that but before spending more money I would like to hear from them again.

I would appreciate if you could share your thoughts on this or perhaps suggest some solutions to the problem.

Many thanks.

Apple offers Mini Display Port adapters for just VGA and DVI. They do not offer an Apple Mini Display Port to HDMI because there are a lot of issues around this.

The new MacBook Pro Retina comes with HDMI, and Apple sells a iPad to HDMI 25 pin connector, but the rest of us are left with 3rd party solutions.

For now I would recommend users running into problems with 3rd party Mini Display Port to HDMI adapters to look at getting a Moshi, Griffin or iWires branded one that Apple lists as VESA display port compatbile. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4241

My Kanex Mini Display Port to HDMI adapter kind of works (blown out colors on my Samsung 27"), but I'm not happy with the quality of output from my Mac Pro.

For those of you running into issues I would encourage you to use Apple's official mini DisplayPort to DVI or VGA adapters until more is known about Apple's DisplayPort to HDMI issues.

Since my ticket that I opened said that it was closed, and since I can't get detailed comments that are posted to my ticket, I called Apple Support and the rep dissappeared for a while and came back. He asked to reset the PRAM (has this ever fixed anything?) and I explained all of this had been done.

I was at work and can't connect to my network, but when I get home I'm supposed to call him and he will "pull" some information from my MBA to report to the engineers.

I thought I saw someone that said this is not affecting ALL MBA's but many of them. Is anyone NOT having this issue using the HDMI? I would rather use HDMI then DVI due to better picture (although it's supposed to be equal). I just want this to be fixed since I just bought the thing and may need it down the road. For now, DVI is working.

😐

marcinetti,

I suggest you save your money because as far as I remember, previously on this thread there was a guy with Moshi adapter and had the same issues.

Maybe you should read previous comments and not trust me 🙂

Cheers

gubble,

You are right, I am waiting for the phone call from Apple before buying anything.

Will report back.

I truly wish I was an MBA owner without this problem - but I'm not. Adding my config here for completeness:

MBA11 (mid-2012)

Cablesson MDP to HDMI converter (it was cheap - about $10 - way cheaper than the Moshi!)

Samsung 22SA350H monitor

Washed out colour - fuzzy fonts - same as everyone. With the default profile the results are *monstrous* - almost unreadable. If you tweak with the color profile it can be made better (but still unacceptable).

Interestingly I do have a Mac Mini (mid-2011) which does not have the same problem when connected with the same cable to the same monitor. It has both MDP and HDMI ports so I tried both - and they treat the display identically - the former with the Cablesson and the latter with a regular HDMI-HDMI cable. I think it's pretty certain that there is an issue with the updated video (Intel HD4000) on these new machines. From what other have said on this forum (including a response from Moshi) it also doesn't appear to be the make of adapter - though I'm sure a really bad one could mess up anything.

Thanks all for keeping this topic updated - it is really annoying to spend all that and have such bad quality!

One more sufferrer.

Got a new MBA delivered today, upgraded to OS X 10.8.

Monitor: Samsung S27A350H (27")

Connector: Moshi HDMI